Newcastle Disease Virus Shows Promise In Treating Prostate Cancer

4/9/2013 4:03 AM ET

Newcastle disease virus that affects poultry, especially chicken and other birds can be a promising treatment for prostate cancer in humans, suggest researchers of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.

The research was carried out by Elankumaran Subbiah, associate professor of virology in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, Siba Samal, associate dean and chairman of the University of Maryland's Department of Veterinary Medicine and Shobana Raghunath, a graduate student in Subbiah's laboratory.

Commenting on the findings, Subbiah said, "The recombinant virus will be extremely safe and can be injected intravenously or directly into the tumor. It would take time for this to move from the discovery phase to a treatment for prostate cancer patients."

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men. According to the American Cancer Society, about 238,590 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed and 29,720 men will die of prostate cancer in 2013.

Surgery, radiation therapy, hormone therapy, chemotherapy and vaccine treatment are some of the treatment options for prostate cancer.